North-West Federation Spring Meeting

Esperanto speakers from all round North-West England were joined by vistors from Yorkshire, Wales, Estonia and Poland on Saturday May 9th 2009 for their Spring meeting, held at the Empire Services Club in Preston.

The main event was a talk from Clare Hunter (25) of Birmingham, who is Secretary of the Young Esperanto Speakers of Britain. In a frank and amusing way Clare told of her progression from being interested in the International Language, through abandoning her studies, then coming to realise that Esperanto was "not just a nice theory, but a living language, which has given me the chance to do things I wouldn't normally do". These activities included reading books translated from languages Clare could never learn, she said, and visiting other countries such as Hungary.

During a visit to Marburg, Germany, for an International Young Esperantists' Congress, Clare had spent a day in the company of new friends from Brazil and Kazakhstan, chatting freely in Esperanto while not knowing each other's language. That struck a chord with Eden Esperanto speaker, Stephen Thompson, who was re-elected Chairman of the NW Federation during the meeting. "When I attended my first World Congress I was similarly impressed with how Esperanto really did override national boundaries" he said. "But I really regret having come to Esperanto only in middle age and so having missed out on the opportunities the International Language offers to young people", he added.